Love Potion
by DDragonWhisper
Summary: She finished the first known love potion but due to some unlikely circumstances the potion is mistakenly used on Neji. Is this really a mistake or fate? Neji x oc
1. Chapter 1: The Mistake

**Love Potion**

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><p><strong>Summary:<strong> She finished the first known love potion but due to some unlikely circumstances the potion is mistakenly used on Neji. Is this really a mistake or fate? Neji x oc

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: The Mistake<strong>

* * *

><p>"Yes! I've finally finished it!" she exclaimed jubilantly as she held up the vial of clear liquid.<p>

Her fuzzy long brown braids looked worn and her professional clothes were a bit dingy from long hours of work. Her light blue eyes glowed with excitement behind her large black framed glasses.

"All the tests on rats went quite well, now all I have to do is move it to human testing," she commented to herself eagerly.

She then smiled and giggled, "Oh I can't believe it, I made the first love potion."

"Love potion? So that's what you've been working on?" A girl asked from beside her.

She jumped in surprise and almost dropped the vial but caught it just in time and looked nervously at the person, "You can't surprise me like that Yoko."

The strawberry blonde just smiled brushing her mid length hair out of her face, "Aren't you happy to have me visit."

"Yeah but you could have-" but before she could finish Yoko snatched the vial out of her hand.

"Is this the love potion? It looks kind of bland doesn't it? Shouldn't it be like hot pink or red?" she commented examining it with mild interest.

"Hey give it back!" Cecilia yelled trying to grab it from her friend but Yoko avoided her easily without even paying attention.

"Why would you make a love potion? Does it really work?" she asked almost nonchalantly.

"I still haven't tested it on humans but so far it was able to release chemicals in the brain that give the user the feeling of being in love. But if you don't give me the vial, I might not be able to test it. It took a long time to get right," she told her while still trying to reach for the vial.

Yoko made it disappear in a poof of smoke.

"Give it back Yoko," she glared at her friend.

"I'll give it back after you treat to lunch; I haven't seen you in months. After that incident you decided to coop yourself up in this . . . room."

She was referring to the small makeshift 'lab' Cecilia had made in the basement of her house. There were books, papers, tools, vials, bottles, pens, folders, mice, rats and all sorts of things all over the place.

"How could you neglect your friends and your home like this?" Yoko pretended to get all sad and depressed, her pink eyes welling up with fake tears.

Cecilia was used to her friend being overdramatic like this but she couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. It's true that she did sort of shut herself up for a few months and was so engrossed in her work that she barely slept, ate or saw anyone.

She sighed in defeat, "Sure, I'll take you to out to lunch."

Almost immediately after she finished her sentence Yoko squealed with excitement, "Yay! Come on I know the perfect place."

She grabbed Cecilia's hand who yelped as her friend practically dragged her up the stairs.

"See you later Mrs. Saitou, Cecilia's taking me out to lunch," Yoko sung as she sped past Cecilia's mom, her friend sill in a daze from suddenly being kidnapped from her own home.

They left so quickly that the wind they created closed the door behind them.

Cecilia's mom blinked in confusion and said quietly, "Okay, have fun."

* * *

><p>"Oh I love this restaurant, don't you?" Yoko asked as they sat at a small table.<p>

"Yeah," she answered although she didn't really love the place as much as her friend did.

Yoko had dragged her all the way there. It felt so weird being out in public again after she spent so much time down in her basement lab but all of the time didn't go to waste. All she had to do was go out to lunch and her days of dedication would be returned, or at least she hoped Yoko would return the vial.

Yoko began to spew every detail of her life from the past few months when she suddenly gasped, "Look Cecilia, isn't that Yuki."

She snapped her attention in the direction Yoko was looking to see a handsome platinum haired boy with green eyes. She then turned back around and nervously tried to hide her face and wished she was invisible. What was he even doing here? Her first day out of her house in months and she had to run into him. He was the whole reason she decided to hide in her house in the first place.

A few months ago she was going to confess her feelings toward him but just as she got the courage to walk over and talk to him, she tripped over something and crashed into a food delivery cart. She was covered in food and surrounded by wreaked containers. The whole thing was such a big mess. Everyone including Yuki had witnessed it so in her embarrassment she ran home and locked herself away. During this time she got the idea to make a new drug for use as a ninja weapon. A love potion that was odorless and tasteless.

Yoko looked at her distressed friend and the boy she had a crush on then got a fabulous idea. She smiled at her own genius.

"Hey Cecilia, how does your potion work exactly? You said you just finished it."

Her friend suddenly seemed to forget a little about Yuki as she explained, "Oh, um, well it releases a certain amount of chemicals in the brain that gives the feeling of being in love, but I figured this would be kind of useless unless it was to a specific person so I made a hole in the structure to be filled with the D.N.A. of a certain person. So if you put hair, fingernail, skin sample or anything of a certain person then the subject will be attracted to the person the sample came from when they pick up their scent. So far I think the drug I have now should work up to 24 hours but like I said I didn't test it on humans yet."

"So all you need is something from the person you want the target to be attracted to?" Yoko asked.

"Yeah," Cecilia answered suspiciously.

"Hey what's that?" Yoko pointed behind her friend and as she turned to look, Yoko plucked a hair from one of her braids.

She then discretely took the vial out her pouch and dropped the hair inside. It dissolved quickly like something would in a strong acid as the clear liquid turned a deluded blue color.

"Cool," she commented under her breath.

"What's cool?" Cecilia asked staring straight at her friend.

Yoko couldn't cover up the guilt in her face and voice, "Oh, well, nothing."

"Is that my vial?"

"No," she hid it behind her.

Cecilia glared and leaned over the table to try to reach it, "Give it back, it's important!"

"Don't make a scene, Yuki might notice," Yoko knew this would stop her and it worked better than she thought.

Cecilia then froze and sat back down looking around suspiciously to see if anyone noticed their small dispute.

"What did you do?" She whispered to Yoko.

She shook the vial and winked, "Let's just say you won't have any more problems with Yuki."

Cecilia looked horrified, "You can't!"

Before she could stop her, Yoko had got up and swiftly made her way over to the kitchen area.

Cecilia was about to get up too but didn't want Yuki to see her so she hid behind the divider and watched Yoko do her thing. She was one of those people that could flirt with any guy and get what she wanted. While she was talking with one of the waiters, she found out Yuki's order and slipped the vial's contents into his tea. Cecilia watched cowardly as the drug was already being used on humans faster than she thought. How could Yoko do that? Although the drug is supposed to be finished, it could still have unexpected side effects. There was a lot of paperwork to go through. There had to be a willing participant, but she couldn't stand the thought that this is something she was actually curious to see unfold. Would Yuki like her finally?

Yoko trotted back over to her friend with a devious smile. Cecilia fumed over her actions and gave her the most distasteful glare.

"Do you realize what you have done? This is the most irresponsible thing you've ever done," Cecilia scolded.

"Oh come on, admit it, you're a little happy that I did it," Yoko teased.

Cecilia just blushed in shame. It was because of him that she made the potion in the first place. She couldn't deny that deep down she really wanted to use the potion on him but she was concerned about the effects of the drug.

"But it hasn't been tested yet, what if it kills him or causes serious side effects," she told her hopeless friend.

"Oh I doubt anything bad would happen," Yoko smiled, "You're wonderful at what you do."

Cecilia was shocked but smiled a little. It was great her friend believed in her but she was beyond doubting her abilities and research. She was just trying to be cautious.

Just then Yoko's eyes widened.

"Oh no," she said under her breath.

This was never a good thing. Cecilia followed her line of sight to see that the tea she so cleverly spiked just a minute ago was not going to Yuki's table. Her expression contorted and her eyes widened in pure panic. Her mouth was opening slowing as if she was silently screaming until she finally found her voice.

Right as she was about to scream Yoko grabbed her and pulled her close covering her mouth and restraining her, "Shh! We can't do anything about it, otherwise everyone will know about what we did."

Cecilia bit her hand and when she was free to talk she said, "What we did? This is all your fault. Now some stranger is going to take that drug. What if it's . . . a girl or an old man or something."

She cringed at the thought of some old guy being infatuated with her.

Yoko looked over and saw the table the tray was brought to, "Looks like your worries might come true."

Cecilia snapped her attention back to the tea. The tray was being brought over to a table of four people. Two of the people looked almost the same and very odd. They both wore green tight fitting suits and had horrible haircuts. It's like one was the miniature of the other, then there was a girl with Chinese style buns and looked friendly. The other person at the table had long hair and some weird eyes. Although more details were hard to see from where they were. The tray reached the table but the waiter's back was blocking their sight, it was hard to tell who got the tea she spiked.

Once the waiter left, she saw them take sips of their drink and felt the blood drain out of her. The world seemed to crack and fall apart. Who was the unlucky victim of her potion?

"Well," Yoko commented, "At least you have a fifty percent chance that it's not a girl or an old guy."

Cecilia couldn't even get mad at her friend. All she could do was watch desperately as one of those strangers was consuming her months of research.

They both watched for a while and waited for them to leave because the only way out was to walk by their table. It seemed that it took forever for them to leave but once they were finally out the door Cecilia sighed in depression. Nothing Yoko said could cheer her up.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad, you probably won't see them again," Yoko rationalized.

Cecilia could hardly pay attention to her friend, "I guess."

She couldn't help worrying about what would happen to the subject. If anything did happen, it would all be her fault.

"Cecilia!" Yoko yelled in warning as her friend walked right into someone's back.

She looked up at the person as her panic from earlier came back to her. She just happened to bump into one of the people from the table. This was just her luck that she bumped into the long haired one. She looked up at his strange eyes then fled as fast as he could in the other direction.

"I'm sorry!" she shouted as she bolted away, nearly falling flat on her face as she skated around the corner.

He stared after her confused. The others he was with noticed that he had stopped.

"What's wrong Neji?" The girl asked.

"Nothing," he said and turned back to them.

"What's wrong with your face?" the young one in the green jumpsuit questioned.

"What are you talking about?" Neji asked in defense.

"You're cheeks are sort of red," the girl commented, "Are you blushing?"

He looked taken aback, "No, it's nothing of the sort."

Although he denied it, he knew that his face felt somewhat hot. In fact, his heart was beating out of control since that girl bumped into him.

"I wonder what Neji would be blushing about," the young green jumpsuit guy wondered.

"I know," he suddenly concluded and pounded his fist in his other hand, "Neji's food was too spicy causing his body temperature to rise."

"I don't know if that's it," the girl commented.

"Or could it be," the older green jumpsuit man interjected with a smile, "that he has found love at first sight. I remember the first time I-"

"Lee was right, the food was too spicy for my liking," Neji interrupted.

"I didn't know their fish had too much spice there," the girl said, "maybe next time you should ask for it to be mild."

They kept talking and walking off again but Neji knew well enough that the food wasn't the problem. It's as if he had a spontaneous rush of adrenaline but why it happened continued to bother him.

Yoko watched them leave and smiled deviously, "Interesting."

* * *

><p><strong>Notes:<strong> Thanks for reading! This is actually shorter than average for the chapters I publish but in many ways this is kind of like a pilot chapter. I will continue it but because I am in the progress of another story at the moment I would like to know if anyone would like me to continue this one. If you'd like to see more of it just review or favorite or just send me a message if you'd like. If I get enough people to like it then I will try to make regular updates for this story as well. For those who might be reading the other story I am working on; this isn't going to stifle the progress of the other story.

Essentially this is a romance and humor based story but it will have some other genres involved as well. I'm really excited about the outline I have made for this story and couldn't wait to publish what I had worked out. Originally, I was going to write it up when I was done with my other story but like I said I couldn't wait and it gives me some variety in writing.

Sorry that some of the characters are not described very well. I kind of wanted people to fill them in with their imagination but I will describe people more as the story goes on.


	2. Chapter 2: The Permission

**Love Potion**

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><p><strong>Summary:<strong> She finished the first known love potion but due to some unlikely circumstances the potion is mistakenly used on Neji. Is this really a mistake or fate? Neji x oc

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: The Permission<strong>

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><p>Mrs. Saitou opened the door to her daughter's room to check on her again.<p>

"Hun, are you okay?" she asked in the doorway.

Cecilia could only be identified by a mass of blankets and a black cloud of sadness that loomed over her.

"I'm fine," she responded in an almost sickly way from her bed, "I'm just a little tired."

Her mother knew this wasn't true and asked with concern, "Did something happen? Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm sorry mom, I can't right now," she answered with a sigh.

Mrs. Saitou knew it wasn't best to push the subject with her daughter. When she wanted to talk she would tell her everything. She was just worried about her condition.

"Alright, when you feel up to it come downstairs and I'll make you something to eat," she offered.

"Thanks mom, but you don't have to, I know you're busy," Cecilia answered.

"You know I can always make time for you," her mother said.

Cecilia could hear the sad smile in her tone, "Thanks mom."

Mrs. Saitou felt this was the time she should leave and shut the door gently behind her. Cecilia sighed and went over the events from yesterday in her mind. How did things end up like this? What if there was a bad side effect to the potion? How would she even know? Why did she have to be so weak as to allow her friend to control the whole situation? Although, she had to admit she was even more weak for making a love potion in the first place. What did she really expect to do with it?

Suddenly Cecilia was shoved off her bed and crashed on the ground, tangled blankets and all.

"Come on, get up, I got a surprise for you," Yoko stood over her with the mischievous smile she always seemed to wear.

Cecilia struggled against the tangled fabric while Yoko got impatient. She then grabbed the blanket and tugged ruffly as Cecilia spun out and hit the floor abruptly.

"There you go, now come on," Yoko said with urgency and excitement as she was about to grab her friend.

Cecilia stumbled up and backed away holding out her hand while using the other to hold her shoulder, "What are you talking about? How did you get in here anyway?"

"Well the door, duh?" she rolled her eyes.

"But I locked- I told my mom-," Cecilia stumbled through her list of safeguards she had against her friend.

"Oh you know nothing can keep me away," Yoko winked at her, "Now come on!"

She grabbed her and once again Cecilia was being dragged into another scheme she was unaware of.

* * *

><p>"Where are we going Yoko?" she finally decided to ask after a while of walking.<p>

Her friend just smiled back at her with devious innocence, "I told you it was a surprise."

Cecilia just sighed but when she noticed the large building they were about to walk into she panicked.

"We're not going in there, are we?" she asked wide eyed.

Yoko just turned and looked at her confused with her head tilted slightly to the side, "Hmm? What's the matter?"

This building was where the Hokage's office resided, "You're not turning me in are you?"

Cecilia immediately fell into a deep panic holding her hands over her ears. She couldn't be arrested for what she did to that boy could she. She didn't know what she was doing. It was an accident. Maybe if they listened to her story or they just knew that Yoko was the one that actually did it. Why would she get in trouble if Yoko was the one that did it?

"Oh you're so silly," Yoko giggled, "Come on!"

She grabbed Cecilia pulling her out of the flurry of worried thoughts and into the building.

"Excuse me," Yoko said to a receptionist-type person, "I believe I have an appointment. The name is Yoko."

The receptionist acknowledged her and led her to a door then knocked on it.

"Come in," a voice was heard from inside and as the door was opened the blood drained from Cecilia's face. The Hokage, Miss Tsunade, was right there. Why in the world did Yoko bring her here?

"Miss Yoko, you're late," she stated right away.

"My apologies Lady Hokage, I had a bit of trouble acquiring Miss Saitou," Yoko said in a surprisingly professional manner.

"Well then, we should get down to business since we don't have a lot of time, " she said as her assistant handed her a file, "Cecilia Saitou."

Cecilia tensed up right away trying not to look foolish.

"I reviewed the proposal Yoko has given me regarding your research and I can't approve it without a proper test of the capabilities," she stated looking up at her from the papers.

What was she talking about?

Yoko then piped in, "That's why we found a compatible test subject."

She pulled some papers out of her pocket and walked up to hand them to Tsunade who then looked them over carefully for a few minutes as a small smile slowly formed on her face.

"I see," Tsunade resting her elbows on the table and folding her hands just under her chin looking thoughtful.

Cecilia was confused looking from Yoko's serious face back to Tsunade's thoughtful probing eyes. Cecilia couldn't handle the suffocating air so she decided to just stare at the ground unnerved.

"I will grant your proposal," Tsunade finally stated bringing everyone back to normal except her assistant who flinched in astonishment, "under one condition. You must get his permission, then we'll talk more about the details."

Who's permission? She had no idea what was going on anymore. Why did Yoko bring her here? What were they talking about?

"Thank you Lady Hokage," Yoko slightly bowed her head in respect and gratitude, "We'll surely return with his permission soon."

"Miss Saitou," Tsunade addressed, "Do you accept this condition as well?"

Now she was being stared down by the Hokage herself. The pressure was making her sweat a little. What was she going to say? What COULD she say? She didn't even know what was going on in the first place.

"Y-y-yes, oh course," she stammered out.

"Very well, your mission is set. You will obtain Neji Hyuga's permission and report back. You're both dismissed," Tsunade said organizing her papers again then wrote something on one of them and handed it to Yoko.

After receiving the paper Yoko had to escort a stunned Cecilia out of the room. Once they got to the streets Cecilia found her voice again.

"What WAS that?" she asked her friend with mixed emotions.

Her friend just smiled deviously, "What are you talking about? It's your project put to good use. Didn't you want your inventions to be used some day?"

"What? Wait, you mean you got permission from the Hokage for my research?" she was actually really impressed with her friend.

Yoko giggled and said cockily, "Well while SOMEONE was lazing about, I was busy getting things done."

Cecilia frowned. Well at least her friend was doing something nice for her. She was so happy to actually have her research being recognized but something still was bothering her.

"By the way, the Hokage said something about the Hyuga clan. What do they have to do with my research?" Cecilia asked still a little confused.

"Huh? You didn't know?" Yoko as she tilted her head, "The boy that drank your potion the other day was Neji Hyuga."

"What?!" Cecilia stopped in her tracks, "My potion was used on a Hyuga?"

She felt the panic seep in her stomach and tighten her chest. She didn't know that her potion was accidently used on such an reverent clan in the village.

"What am I going to do? What if they're mad at me? Maybe if I apologize or something. But I suppose they don't know it was me. But what if there are side effects," Cecilia worried pacing back and forth.

Her friend just frowned watching her pace with her hands on her hips.

She then clapped snapping Cecilia out of her own world, "Well if you want to know if they are angry we are going to see them right now."

"We're doing what?!" Cecilia nearly screamed, "Why are we going there?"

Yoko rolled her eyes, "Come on, keep up. We are going there to get permission to run tests on the love potion you made. Once we do that you can get your project approved."

"Permission?" Cecilia looked meek, "I don't know if I could ask such a thing. I mean, an untested drug being used on someone unknowingly if unforgivable. It's unsafe and then to ask to use it on them afterwards is just-"

She shook her head and covered her ears, "I just can't do this."

Yoko just smiled and grabbed her friend's hands in encouragement, "Come on Cecilia, of course you can do it. It's no big deal, especially when you have a friend like me."

Yoko ran off pulling her friend along for the ride.

* * *

><p>"Lady Tsunade, do you really think this is a good idea especially to involve the Hyuga clan in something like this?" Shizune questioned with concern.<p>

"Of course," Tsunade said while shuffling through some papers, "I admit I was skeptical about it at first until I looked over Cecilia Saitou's file."

She then placed a few sheets of paper on top of the pile with a picture clipped to the top.

"What do mean?" Shizune asked curiously.

Tsunade then handed her the papers, "Cecilia Saitou dropped out of school even though she showed a lot of promise but the reasons are what draw the most attention."

"Oh," Shizune said with some surprise when she looked over the file.

"It may be a long shot," Tsunade said thoughtfully, "But I believe this endeavor will benefit both of them in the end."

She then turned to look out the window, "Maybe even the whole Ninja world as well."

* * *

><p>"Here we are," Yoko said as she stood in front of the gate to the Hyuga compound.<p>

Cecilia cowered behind her constantly worrying with her hands over her mouth.

She then rung a bell near the door and after a few moments a voice was heard from the other side, "Who is there and what is your business?"

"We have a request from the Hokage to see Neji Hyuga," Yoko said officially taking out the paper.

A few moments later the door opened as a member of the Hyuga clan appeared before them and held out his hand for the paper. Yoko gladly gave it to him as he looked it over and then back up at them.

"One moment," he said closing the door again as the minutes passed by like hours.

"How do we know he is even here?" Cecilia asked.

"He has been at home since yesterday, probably training or something," Yoko answered still looking at the door.

"How do you know he's been at home?" she questioned suspiciously.

Yoko looked at her and smiled widely, "I told you I've been busy."

When he came back he opened the door more widely, "Only one of you may enter at the moment."

Yoko then pushed Cecilia forward which made her stumble a little, "No problem, Cecilia will go in and I will wait here."

Cecilia only looked frightened with her eyes wide then turned to her friend, "Wait, what am-?"

"Don't worry," Yoko waved it off, "You can do, just get that permission okay?"

She seemed disturbed by her friend's smile but turned around slowly to follow the Hyuga into the compound looking back once more before the door closed at Yoko smiling and waving to her. Somehow that one smile seemed forced and unreal.

"This way please," the man said as she snapped her attention toward him, "And please keep to yourself, normally not many outsiders are allowed within the compound."

She nodded and followed closely behind him wondering what she would say to Neji when she saw him. Thinking back to the time she bumped into him she couldn't help but feel embarrassed all over again. She never even met him before and now she had to ask him to be an experiment. This was just too much. Why couldn't it have just been Yuki? No, maybe she should have never made that stupid potion in the first place, then she would have never been in this mess.

They finally came across a person training in a yard. Each move he made was fluid and quick she could hardly follow his movements.

"Neji," the man said, "There is someone here to see you with orders from the Hokage."

He stopped immediately looking over at them. She felt her blood drain and her breath stopped for a moment. What was she going to say to him?

He walked over to them and addressed the man first, "Orders from the Hokage?"

"Yes, this is a messenger from Lady Tsunade. The letter with her asked to keep it confidential so I will wait at the front of the building."

He then turned to her, "I will escort you when you leave."

She nodded feeling more nervous than ever.

The man left and it was only her and Neji. She tried to look at him but it only made her freeze up so she looked away and tried to explain, "I- ahhh, I- ummm, was sent to, well . . ."

When she glanced up at him he looked impatient.

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to say this," she started apologizing right away.

He sighed a little annoyed, "Well if you don't-"

He cut himself off by sneezing into his sleeve.

"Bless you," Cecilia said feeling a little less tense at the sudden interruption.

He then rubbed his forehead for a second like he had a headache before returning to his normal position and continuing, "If you don't have anything to say then why are you here?"

"I do have something to say it's just that I don't know how to say it exactly," she said defensively.

"Clearly you came here unprepared," he said holding his forehead again as red color was appearing on his cheeks.

"Are you alright?" Cecilia asked with concern.

"It's nothing," he said looking away from her.

It's then that it occurred to her that this might be a side effect of the drug, or maybe it was just a common cold. Either way this made her more confident with her goal. In testing the drug she would be able to know the effects exactly and how to prevent them. This poor person needed to know what he had taken.

"I'm sorry," she started and bowed her head slightly looking down at the ground to humble herself, "Yesterday you ingested a newly developed drug I invented which deals with attraction. Though I deeply apologize for the mistake. I came here to ask you for your permission to observe your reaction to the drug as to get a better picture of its effectiveness."

Wow, she never knew she could have said it so perfectly. Still this was no time to marvel over her speech. She looked up at him to see something she didn't expect: a face of curiosity.

"You . . . have my permission," he said said slowly not taking his eyes of her's which made her feel a little uncomfortable.

He went from annoyed to very attentive quickly.

"Okay . . . great!" she smiled to lighten the mood, "I'll get the information on the drug and observations I will be conducting to you tomorrow. Oh, and I will also have you take a blood test," she said thoughtfully trailing off in some notes to herself.

He was still staring at her looking a little warm.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked concerned looking a little worried.

He finally torn his stare away and closed his eyes while covering them with his hand as well.

"Yes I'm fine," he said uncovering his eyes and looking away from her, "Please bring me that information tomorrow."

"Okay," she answered still concerned about his symptoms but he seemed a bit stubborn.

"I will show you to your escort," he said walking away as she followed.

They met up with the man in front of the building and she left with him. Neji avoided eye contact with her the whole time. She felt bad for his symptoms but didn't know if she caused them or not. The sooner she finished the experiment the better for both of them.

* * *

><p>Neji watched her leave until she was finally out of sight then walked back to the training yard where he leaned against the building and closed his eyes trying to level his breathing. His heart was beating fast making him feel hot and his head spun. Why did she have to come and see him? The moment from yesterday kept playing in his head whenever he closed his eyes. He wanted to know who that girl was so badly but now he wished he didn't know.<p>

He hardly could concentrate on what she said. He could only think of the way she said certain words, the subtle movements she made when she was explaining things. Not to mention when she looked at him it made him feel nervous.

He clenched his fists at the fact that his thoughts weren't helping to calm him down. She said something about an experiment that she wanted him to be a part of. He just found it hard to say no because in actuality he wanted to see her again but also didn't at the same time.

He needed to clear his mind. He composed himself and walked to the middle of the training field and resumed his routine. Though, training didn't help. Images of her still somehow found their way into his mind. The sooner he was done with this, the better.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes:<strong> I'm not sure if this is such a great chapter but it really sets the scene for what is about to happen in the other chapters. I'm not even sure if this chapter was exactly ready so I might end up changing some parts of it if it doesn't flow well into the next chapter though. Tell me what you think and thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3: The Mission

**Love Potion**

* * *

><p><strong>Summary:<strong> She finished the first known love potion but due to some unlikely circumstances the potion is mistakenly used on Neji. Is this really a mistake or fate? Neji x oc

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: The Mission<strong>

* * *

><p>Today was the day. She gathered up all her material and papers for notes and placed them neatly in a case which she then snapped shut.<p>

"Hmmm, maybe I need-" she said out loud to herself looking around and picking up a few instruments for mixing and holding ingredients and shoved them in a bag.

She thought hard on what she should bring with her, but couldn't help but feel she was forgetting something. Well, either way she was late and had to get going, so with her arms stuff full of things she awkwardly hurried up the stairs. She pushed through the hall and toward the door.

"Where are you going?" her mom asked from a doorway in the hall wondering what her daughter was doing.

"I told you mom, I have permission to test my experiments and I'll be back soon," she said shoving the mass of materials and herself out the door and nearly tripping on her way out.

"Bye mom!" she yelled and ran off a little strangely because of the bulk around her.

Her mother peeked out the door after her and smiled sadly as she watched her stumble down the street.

"Good luck," she said quietly before closing the door softly.

By the time Cecilia arrived at the Hyuga compound she was huffing. She tried to carefully shift the items in her arms enough to knock on the large doors only to drop one thing then another then all the items fell in a waterfall fashion. She squeaked out a scream and fell over from the sudden transfer of weight out of her arms. The door opened suddenly to reveal Neji who looked confused at the messy scene in front of him.

"What happened?" he asked as he closed the door behind him.

"I, uh, well, um," Cecilia tried to think of a way to explain but no words came to mind not to mention Neji's intimidating presents made her a bit nervous.

"Nevermind," he said as he picked up some of the items.

She reluctantly helped as well.

"What are all these things for anyway," he asked as he picked up a needle.

"Just some things for tests," she answered timidly.

She could see the skeptical worry change his expression which made her rethink bringing all of what she did.

Once all the items were picked up he opened the doors once again and placed them inside near the entrance. She was about to follow him inside when he stopped her.

"I have some errends to run today so we'll be be back in a while," he explained.

"But what about-?" she was about to ask but he cut her off.

"Just leave them here," he ordered taking the items from her arms and placing them inside next to the other ones and closing the door.

"But-" she was going to protest.

"They'll be fine there, let's go," he said as he started to walk down the street.

She felt torn between leaving her things and being left behind but in the end ran to catch up with Neji.

"Um, do you mind if I ask you a few questions," she said as she caught up to him taking out a pad and a pencil.

"Fine," he said simply still concentrating on where he was going.

"As of 12:35 yesterday have you been feeling any different or have developed any odd symptoms?" she asked.

This was one of her first interviews with a patient who could tell her how he or she felt so she didn't really know what to ask. For now she was just going to go over some basics.

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'odd symptoms'," he responded simply.

"Well I suppose what I mean is have you felt any different?" she asked again.

He thought for a moment, "Warm and dizzy at times."

"At times? So when do the symptoms show up? Any regular intervals, certain foods, or stimulus that cause it?" she asked further writing diligently on her note pad.

He stopped but Cecilia didn't take notice until she bumped into him. He didn't seem to notice or maybe he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts.

"I don't believe there is a pattern," he said without looking at her.

"Oh," she said sensing something a little strange in the way he answered but continued to write anyway.

"Do you have any allergies?" she continued on with her extensive list of questions in which Neji only gave short answers and never looked at her.

So engrossed in her questionnaire she didn't notice where they had even gone. In the midst of the lively part of town Cecilia was about to enter a building with Neji when he stopped her.

"This is . . . a private matter. It won't take long but I will need you to stay here. Do you mind?" he asked seriously.

"O-okay," she said then backed away from the doorway as he closed it behind him.

For the first time in a what seemed like forever she looked around at the streets of people moving about with their lives. The smells of the food being cooked rushed past on the wind along with the multitude of voices that blended into a mass of noise. Turning her eyes up to the sky and clutching the notepad to her chest she inhaled deeply. The call of a falcon resounded from above, a small sound to others, but an overwhelming sound to her. What was a falcon even doing this close in town? Her eyes began to water and her nose stung. Shaking her head and looking down again she cursed her luck. Of all birds it had to be that one. She just had to try and not think of it.

Just don't think of it. Concentrate on something else. Looking out at the crowd again she gave her attention to what people were doing again to get her mind away from her memories. The memories she tried to deal with everyday.

"So he left you all alone huh?" Yoko said in an unamused tone.

Cecilia jumped and looked beside her to find Yoko standing as if she had been there the whole time.

"Why do you always have to do that?" she snapped at her friend.

"Because it's fun," she giggled, "but how come you're alone? I thought you would be seducing a particular Hyuga today."

Cecilia immediately reddened from her cheeks to her ears, "W-w-what?! It's not like that at all. I am just conducting an analysis on my drug."

"Oh, is that what they are calling it now?" she laughed at her own joke.

Cecilia just fumed looking away from her friend and pouted, "Did you come here just to tease me?"

"Well no, I'm a busy person after all and I was here to do some research," she smiled as if amused by something, "so I should be going now, bye."

"What?" Cecilia only just turned back to her friend to find no one there.

What kind of research was she talking about?

"Are you alright?" Neji asked after he appeared from the door and seeing her disposition.

"No, I'm fine," she smiled with her mind muddled.

"I only have one more place to go if that's alright," he said looking away from her again.

"Okay," she responded though her thoughts were already elsewhere.

While they walked she couldn't help but wonder what Yoko was up to. It's not like she wasn't a busy body normally but something about her just seemed a little off. Cecilia just sighed, maybe she was just over thinking things. She hadn't seen her friend in so long after all.

"You don't have anymore questions?" Neji asked her curiously.

She didn't even look up when answering but stayed in thought, "Um well, not really."

"You seemed so talkative before. Are you sure there isn't anything wrong?" he inquired further, this time looking in her direction.

"I'm all right, really," she smiled at him only too see his cheeks go a little red as he quickly looked away again.

She tilted her head and stared in his direction. Did she just see what she thought she saw? Did he blush? Why would he blush? Did she have something on her face? Shuffling through her thoughts she came up with so many possibilities but the one that made the most sense was that it was a side effect of the drug. He blushed because he was infatuated with her in some way. It was only the effect of the drug but the mere thought of it made her start to blush as well.

"Cecilia!" a voice rang out from afar as a boy came trotting over.

She froze in her spot. Why? Why now?

The white haired, blue eyed boy of her dreams and nightmares was walking up to her and she had nowhere to go.

"I haven't seen you in a long time. Where have you been? I heard you dropped out of school. Is that true?" Yuki asked genuinely concerned.

"I, umm," she stared sheepishly at the ground and tried to find words but her face was starting to feel hot, "I had to, umm, help my mom with things at home."

"I see," he said with a sad smile, "Well I'm glad to see you're alright."

"Thanks for your concern," she said still looking elsewhere in her shyness.

An awkward moment stilled the conversation. Yuki stood around like he wanted to say something more but was having a hard time deciding if he should when he noticed Neji beside her with a slightly sour look on his face.

"You're a Hyuga," Yuki said with mild surprised.

"Oh!" Cecilia exclaimed as she realized that she completely forgot about Neji, "This is Neji Hyuga, he and I are, ah, working on a project together. In fact we were running some errands right now."

She didn't dare mention anything about her new love potion to Yuki. She would feel too embarrassed to confess making a drug like that to him. Especially since she had originally made it because of him.

"I see," he smiled strangely then looked back where he had come from and back to her, "Well I hope to see you again sometime. I really should get back home."

"Okay," she smiled back feeling a little better now that he was leaving.

Not that she didn't want to be around him, but seeing him after so long made it a little uncomfortable.

"See you," he waved and ran off.

"Bye," she waved after him and sighed in relief.

"Shall we continue?" Neji asked still not looking at her.

"Yeah, sorry," she felt bad at having him witness her awkward love conversation.

"No need to be sorry," he continued on calmly as they resumed the errands Neji set out to do.

Yuki wanted to see her again. She couldn't believe it. All in one moment things seemed to turn around. She smiled dreamily as she fantasized about spending time with him. Maybe now she could get over her shyness and embarrassment, if just a little at a time, because Yuki wanted to see her again. Her bubbly disposition glowed and her silly smile wouldn't go away. Her body even felt a little lighter.

It was then she noticed they had arrived at the Hokage's office.

"Why are we here?" she asked a little confused.

"I have a meeting with Lady Tsunade," Neji informed her as they walked into the building.

When they reached the reception desk Neji announced himself, "Neji Hyuga, I believe Lady Tsunade had called for me."

The receptionist looked through some papers, "Yes, and I see you have Cecilia Saitou with you as well. You can both go on up. Your teammates Lee and Tenten have already arrived."

They both seemed surprised but Cecilia was the first to say something, "Me too?"

"Yes of course," she responded before going back to her work.

Why her too? Nobody told her about any meeting and by Neji's reaction, he didn't know either.

"Well, let's go, we don't want to be late," Neji said accepting the information though in his mind he was confused as well.

"Right," she said thoughtfully while following him to the Hokage's office.

Tenten smiled as they entered the room, "Neji."

"I'm glad to see you brought Cecilia with you," Tsudane commented at they both walked into the room, "I thought she would be with you today."

Cecilia only smiled awkwardly. Was it because of the meeting yesterday that Tsudane thought she was with Neji? How did she already know she got the permission? Did information really travel that fast?

"I am sorry this is on such short notice but the mission I'm sending you on is of a slightly time sensitive manner," she apologized before continuing formally, "According to our information, a group from the Cloud will be moving an artifact that was stolen from us a few months ago. It should be highly guarded and kept in a small black case protected by seals. Your mission is to take back this artifact as discretely as possible."

"What kind of artifact is it?" Tenten asked curiously.

Tsudane just kept her serious expression, "That information is top secret."

"Lady Tsudane," Lee raised his hand as if asking a question in class, "Guy Sensai isn't here, should we not wait for him before going over details?"

"Guy will not be joining you on this mission, " she said while leaning back in her chair, "He's previously engaged in another mission I sent him on this morning."

She sighed and looked a little annoyed, "Though he didn't forget to express how proud he was of his team going on a mission alone and how sad he was that he couldn't go with you all."

"Guy Sensai, I will make you proud," Lee proclaimed holding his fist up in front of him with an almost tearful joy.

"Therefore, Neji will be heading the team," Tsunade concluded.

"The group with the artifact are constantly on guard so I will emphasis this is a stealth mission," she mention again glancing over at Lee who didn't seem to notice this was directed at him, "You must retrieve the artifact before it reaches it's destination tomorrow beyond our borders. The last time they were sighted was near the Koasky village but not much else it known. Though finding them is not the difficult part of this mission. Find the artifact without confrontation. Is that clear?"

"Yes Lady Tsudane," they said together except for Cecilia.

"I'm sorry but are you sure about sending me one this mission?" she questioned uncertainly, "I mean, I haven't even finished school. Doesn't that prohibit me from going on missions?"

Tsudane started at her for a moment as if weighing the answers in her head, "Normally that would be true but due to circumstances, I believe you would be beneficial to this mission. Though because of your situation you have all rights to refuse."

Everyone was looking at her now, waiting for an answer. What was she going to do? She had never gone on a mission before. Well, at least not a real mission. Why did Lady Tsunade want her to go even though she didn't qualify as a ninja? What could she contribute that someone else couldn't?

"I . . . accept. I will go on this mission," she stated firmly.

What was she thinking? She had to be crazy, but she couldn't help her curiosity. Also there was the fact that if Neji was gone she couldn't conduct her experiment further and the result might be skewed if she continued when he got back.

"Good then I will leave this in your team's hands," she said with a smile, "I expect good results."

They all said their goodbyes respectively and left.

For some reason Tenten had stayed by them as they were walking back to the compound.

"So Neji, who's the girl?" Tenten inquired almost teasingly.

"You can ask her yourself. You don't have to go through me," he said a little annoyed.

Neji was rather thoughtful after hearing about their assignment. No doubt probably planning how to succeed.

Seeing he wasn't in any mood for jokes, she frowned in disappointment then turned her attention toward Cecilia and smiled, "Hi, I'm Tenten, and you are?"

"I'm Cecilia," she smiled a bit shyly.

"We'll be going on a mission together tomorrow so I thought we should get to know each other a little. I'm a weapons specialist and Neji well, he's a Hyuga so he has the ability to see things all around him at once, not to mention he is good with close range taijutsu and-"

Just then she noticed the boy from before balancing on one foot atop the fence by the road while trying to keep really still.

"What are you doing Lee?" Tenten asked calmly as if this was a question she asked a lot.

"In order to increase my stealth I will balance on this post until I become one with the scenery," he said with absolute concentration.

"I don't see how that's going to improve your stealth," Tenten doubted.

"If I can keep this position for 8 hours I will blend into the scenery and will become like a pine cone in a tree; a natural entity of the forest" he said straining his muscles to keep absolutely still.

What? Everyone was more than confused by his reasoning but Neji and Tenten let it go quickly so Cecilia did as well.

When they had started to walk again Tenten sighed, "That was Lee, he specializes only in taijutsu, that's why he works so hard even though his methods seem a little . . . odd."

"I see," Cecilia said thinking that this team was a little unbalanced.

It seemed like all of them specialized in close combat. Shouldn't a team be more diverse?

"What is it that you do really well?" Tenten asked.

"Oh, umm," she had never thought it it before.

What was she good at?

"I concentrated more on long range fighting and ninjutsu mostly," she answered thinking of her time in school.

"I don't know if I should ask but why did you drop out of school?" she asked respectively, "I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Why did everyone always want to know why she dropped out of school?

She sighed, "No I should probably tell everyone."

Taking a deep breath she readied herself for the explanation, "It's not like I did bad in school but there was . . . a tragedy in my family so I left school to help my mom and concentrate on my chemical weapons."

"A tragedy?" she said inquisitively.

Cecilia's face contorted in pain at the memory but she tried her best to shake it off, "I'd rather not say."

"I'm sorry," Tenten said feeling a little shamed about asking, "what about the chemical weapons you mentioned?"

"Well, my family specializes in chemical weaponry. We've actually developed a lot of the poisons used today and . . . other things I'm not suppose to talk about."

"Oh, I see," she said thoughtfully then seemed to remember something, "Glad to have you on the team but I need to prepare for tomorrow, see you both then."

She waved and ran off leaving only her and Neji again in strange silence.

"Do you know why Lady Tsunade would invite you on our mission?" he asked suddenly catching her off guard.

"Well, I had thought about it and I could only think that she let me go because of the experiment I'm conduction on you or . . . no it couldn't be anything else," she trailed off.

He glanced at her suspiciously but didn't say anything else.

"And speaking of the experiment," she perked up digging into her bag around her waist and pulling out a vial of light blue liquid.

"I hate to ask you this when we have a mission tomorrow but in order to reinforce the drug I will need you to take this in a few hours," she held out the glass tube to him but he was hesitant.

"This is the same drug you took before," she said as she blushed a little thinking how she had to dissolve a small strand of her hair in the mixture.

"I mean, if you don't want to, you don't have to," she said quickly getting a little nervous, "it's not like anyone else knows about our agreement and I mean, if you don't want to continue you really don't have to."

He then took the vial and sighed, "It's fine. I said I would go through with this so I will."

Looking at the liquid with an absent mind, he stored it in pocket of clothes.

"Okay, if you don't mind I'll draw your blood tonight in order to run some tests on it before we leave tomorrow," she stated thinking of all the other things she still needed to consider, "there really shouldn't be any changes or bad effects but I would like to be sure and also I need you to take notes on anything you feel out of the ordinary so I can figure out how it effects the user."

She continued in a flurry of procedures she needed to go through and things she should have done. For example, she said she should have acquired his permission and blood work before he even took the drug but it was too late for that.

When they got back to the Hyuga compound Neji confirmed his identity with the guard and the doors opened to reveal her things were still there just the same as when she left them.

"Wow, you're right, they weren't touched," she commented with amazement.

"It's one of the more secure places in Konoha," he said picking up some of the items so she did as well.

"Follow me," he commanded as they made their way through the compound to a room with a typical Japanese bed on the floor and other ordinary bedroom items.

"Is this your room," she asked as she looked around at the ordinary clean space.

"Yes," he simply stated putting the items in a corner of his room, "Your things will be safe here."

She went over and placed the items she had in her hands in the corner as well. When she turned back to Neji he was holding out his arm with his palm upward. She was puzzled as to what he was doing.

"Aren't you going to take my blood?" he asked calmly.

"Oh!" she exclaimed feeling a little embarrassed then prepared her medical equipment, gloves and sterilizing her hands and tools. She motion for him to sit down and so did she with her needle ready.

"Don't worry," she reassured him, "I've been trained how to do this."

She sterilized the place where she was going to draw the blood then found the vain quickly.

He stared at her the whole time she was drawing the blood and when it was over he spoke in low stern tone, "You're part of the Saitou family, the one that does research on kekkei genkai, aren't you?"

She froze when putting away her tools and shot up to meet his gaze, "How . . . do you know about my family?"

"Normally no one would be allowed to experiment on my clan or even take our blood. The Saitou family was given special access to anyone with a kekkei genkai in order to develop new abilities in future generations," he stated as the tension between them thickened.

She adverted her eyes from his with a bitter expression, "I don't know how you found out about my family but that research ended with my father. It's true my family worked closely with clans who possessed a kekkei genkai but that's not true anymore. We only specialize in chemical weaponry now. The drug I used on you was a mistake and that's all."

She was about to get up but he grabbed her wrist, "What does the drug really do?"

"I can't say," she said sadly, "It'll skew the results if you know what it is."

He let go and she continued to pack up her things. Leaving the rest of her things in his room she took a pack with the most important items and slung them over her side. Neither talked or even looked at each other.

"I'll see you tomorrow for the mission," she said as she stopped before the sliding door.

"And," she turned back with a sad, pitiful look in her eyes, "if you really don't want to go through with the experiment, remember that you don't have to. I'll understand."

She then left with a small thud of the sliding door, letting silence settle in. Neji looked down at the bandage on his arm and tried to organize his thoughts. Ever since he was summoned by his uncle that morning he started to have suspicions. His uncle told him that anyone in the clan was forbidden to participate in any kind of experiment lest their secrets be stolen but when he heard it was a Saitou from the Hokage he changed his position. That's when his uncle had obliged to releasing information on the Saitou family and their experiments to Neji. Though he thought the family had been wiped out years ago.

What were they doing now? Why did the Tsunade send her to him? Why would she insist Cecilia go on the mission? It was too much of a coincidence that she used the drug on him. Although, she never seemed to have any anterior motive. She even offered again that he could back out of the whole thing and not get involved.

He took out the vial of clear blue liquid, shifting it through his fingers, wondering what he should do. Could he trust her?

"Cecilia Saitou," he said uncapping the tube and holding it up in front of him, "I'll find out your secrets."

Putting the vial to his lips he drank the entire contents in one gulp.

The bitter taste made his face go sour and he coughed, "At least she could have made it taste better."

* * *

><p>Cecilia finished the blood work and sighed deeply. Explaining the mission to her mom was one of the more horrible endeavors she had to go through. After she convinced her mom that she would be fine she still ended up worrying. Cecilia couldn't blame her though, after what happened a few months ago, but this is something she had to do.<p>

The day had nearly ended by the time she shuffled up to her room.

As soon as she opened the door she groaned, "Why are you here?"

"That's no way to treat your friend," Yoko pouted.

"Yeah well I'm tired and I have a mission to go on tomorrow," she yawned.

"Yeah I know," she laughed, "and I thought that you might want a haircut so your braids don't get in the way during your mission."

She smiled deviously with a pair of scissors in her hands. This make Cecilia suddenly snap awake.

"A HAIRCUT? But I haven't cute my hair in so long," she said holding her braids in her hands.

"Oh come on, don't you think it's time for a change?" Yoko waved the scissors around dangerously when speaking.

Cecilia rubbed her other arm nervously. Maybe it was time for a change. After all, the past few days felt like a strange dream and the past few months flashed by in an instant. Maybe she needed to just let go of everything.

"Fine," she said and pulled up a chair then sat in it with her eyes closed, "just don't cut it too short."

Yoko for once was in shock, "Are you sure?"

"Just, please hurry before I change my mind," she said firmly.

"Alright," Yoko said a little uncertain about the change in her friend and took the two braids and prepared to cut.

"Are you _really_ sure?" she asked one more time.

"Mmhmm," Cecilia answered squeezing her eyes shut.

Yoko then snapped the scissors together and the first cut was made. Each snip made Cecilia feel a little more worried. Did she make the right choice? Was accepting the mission the right thing to do? Was her experiment with Neji the right thing? Should she have told him about her family?

"I'm done!" Yoko chirped, "You can open your eyes now."

Her eyelids slowly unfolded as she peered up into her mirror across the room. Standing up she slowly walked over to the mirror for a closer look. The ends of her hair feathered out like a fluffy bird and ended just past her shoulders. She put her hand on mirror as if to touch her reflection when the tears welled up in her eyes and flowed down her cheeks. She cried like she hadn't in a long time like all the events of her life catching up to her.

Yoko went over and promptly hugged her friend, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was that bad at doing hair."

Cecilia gasped out a laugh but continued to cry.

Her friend smiled sadly, "I know, it has to be hard, but you can do this. I know you can."

It was times like this she remembered why Yoko was her friend. They stayed like that for a while until she finally calmed down. Yoko made sure she was okay then left so Cecilia could settle into bed.

So many questions were unanswered: Why did the Hokage want her on the mission? How did Neji find out about her family? How would he react tomorrow? Would he continue their experiment? Would he end it after their mission?

She snuggled in her blankets more, trying to rest her mind. At least Yuki noticed her. She smiled at the very thought. At least something was going right. She could always look forward to seeing Yuki again. With her fantasies of Yuki to keep her preoccupied she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes:<strong> Obviously these events are taking place in an alternate universe. There isn't any way I could fit it into the current series as it is now. I also hope I'm not confusing with the way I write. There are still a lot of mysteries to be had in this story so things will be explained in time.

Sorry I haven't written in a long time. School was hassling and work was tiring. Luckily I found the time and motivation to write once again and I am so happy I did. Hope to see you next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4: The Date

**Love Potion**

* * *

><p><strong>Summary:<strong> She finished the first known love potion but due to some unlikely circumstances the potion is mistakenly used on Neji. Is this really a mistake or fate? Neji x oc

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: The Date<strong>

* * *

><p>"No, no, no, not today, not today!" She pleaded before swallowing a few pills and rubbing her eyes in front of the bathroom mirror.<p>

Blinking a few times to readjust her contacts she sighed, "I can't have this happening during the mission."

Placing the pills in her pouch she left for her room to gather up the last of her things still rubbing her eyes occasionally. Taking only what she needed, she knew she would have to pack light for the mission.

Her mother crept in the doorway, gingerly knocking on the open door.

Cecilia turned around curiously at the small sound.

"Mom," she said in slight surprise.

She didn't expect to see her until she went downstairs.

"Cecilia," she started as she made a few small steps in the room, "I just wanted you to know that I'm really proud of you and-"

She unfolded a red cloth to reveal a small needle-like clip for her hair. The small silver object had a simple designed of a snake, bird and rose at the end. The snake itself curled around the rose while the bird had its wings extended to show the feathers.

"I wanted you to have this," her mother smiled softly.

"Wow, mom, where did you get this?" she asked when taking the small object.

"You're father wanted you to have it," her mother said in a sad tone.

This only made the clip even more astonishing, "Dad wanted to give this to me?"

"We were going to give it to you when you graduated but-," her mom held back tears and did her best to compose herself.

"Thank you mom," she smiled and hugged her before she started feeling emotional as well.

Her mother hugged her back petting her newly cut hair as if comforting her daughter but she knew it really was to comfort herself. She always felt her daughter was stronger than herself.

They broke apart and many goodbyes later she was able to make it out the door. Pulling her hair back into a small messy bun, she placed the clip in to hold it together.

As she hurried down the street she realized that no one actually told her where to meet so she decided to just wait at the main gate and hope they would be there. That seemed to be a popular meeting place anyway.

When she ran up to the gate and saw Neji, Tenten and Lee waiting she smiled. The wonderfully satisfying feeling of guessing right welled up in her stomach as well as the acidic nervousness of her first mission.

"You cut your hair," Tenten greeted first.

"Yeah," Cecilia responded shyly avoiding Neji.

She had no idea what she would say to him. Even if she had made a promise to herself to continue with her experiment no matter what, it would still be hard to have casual interactions with him again. In fact, she didn't even know if he would continue the experiment. Maybe this mission would be the last encounter they would have.

"Miss Cecilia," Lee said suddenly, seemingly appearing right in front of her.

She flinched in surprise as he took her hand, "My name is Lee and I wanted to welcome you to our team. I know our mission will be a success as long as we all work together."

"I- uh, thank you" she said still a little stunned.

"I think you're scaring her Lee," Tenten sighed.

Cecilia quickly waved away her comment, "No, no, I just was startled that's all."

She smiled at Lee, "I'm glad to meet you too Lee."

"Well if we're all acquainted we should get moving, our mission is time sensitive," Neji stated plainly.

Cecilia forced herself to turn her attention to Neji who was looking at his other teammates. Was he going to avoid her as well?

Both Tenten and Lee went serious knowing that now the mission was beginning. She prepared to start the mission as well, hoping that she would be able to keep up. The last things she wanted to be was a hindrance.

"Let's go," Neji said as they all took off following his lead.

Speeding through the trees they made their plans for action.

"The artifact should be moving northwest from here," Neji explained, "The object is a small black box covered in seals though they may hide this object in another container."

His teammates nodded but Cecilia wondered how they would actually be able to find something so small.

"Hey Ne- Ahh!" Cecilia was about to express her concerns when she missed a branch and slipped.

She slammed into a few other branched before hitting the ground hard. Curling into herself in pain she hissed to keep from screaming.

Her new teammates landed quickly by her side.

"Miss Cecilia, are you alright?" Lee asked concerned.

"Yeah, just a little bruised," she reported as she tested her muscles to see which ones were injured.

It was more than embarrassing for her to slip up so quickly on her first mission. It's times like this that she really started to question why she thought she could go on this mission.

"Where are you hurt?" Neji asked beside her.

Oh right, that's why, her potion.

"Just my shoulder mostly," she answered trying not to look at him.

"Can you continue?" he questioned in his normal urgent tone.

"Yes of course," she shifted to get up only to have her newly sore muscles resist.

She slunk back down in embarrassment but before she could try to get up again Neji stopped her, "Hold on."

He placed his hands on her shoulder making her flinch.

"Stay still," he ordered moving his hands along her shoulder then then on her leg.

She did her best not to move wondering what he was doing but as quickly as he had started he stood back up.

"What was-" she was about to ask only to notice she felt fine.

"Your pain should be gone but it's only temporary," Neji explained as she stood up carefully expecting pain only to feel completely normal.

"Wow Neji, I had no idea you could do that," Tenten commented amazed.

"I-" he was about to say something only to be interrupted by his own sneeze.

"Are you alright?" Cecilia asked now directing the attention toward him.

His face was turning a warm red as if he was getting a fever.

"I'm fine, we need to continue," he said dismissing her concern readily as he took off into the trees.

His teammates seemed concerned but followed. The top priority was the mission after all. Even so, they seemed more relaxed than she was. Lee had started suggesting strange remedies for colds to Neji who brushed off the comments, stating he was fine.

Even though Lee assumed he had a cold Cecilia knew she was the most curious about Neji's condition. If she didn't know any better she would say that his symptoms seemed similar to when he first took the drug. Did that mean he actually was continuing the experiment?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she nearly stumbled on another branch. Maybe she should be concentrating on herself for now. If she fell again it wouldn't only be her first mission but her last one as well. She had to finish this successfully, not only for herself but for everyone else on her team.

Later on in what seemed like an endless vortex of trees she was tiring out way too fast. The sore pain in her legs was becoming the only thought consuming her consciousness. When would it end?

Somewhere between the burning pain in her legs and the countless number of leaves, Neji had them stop.

"They're just ahead," he informed them using his eyes to look into an unknown distance, "There are six of them all together, two are carrying a chest while one is leading them and the other is guarding the rear. Two scouts are guarding the perimeter."

"What is the plan Neji," Lee asked ready to go at a moment's notice.

She had no idea how they all had so much energy. Being out of school really didn't do much for her stamina.

"We'll have to take out the scouts before we can move into the main group. If we can catch them by surprise it will only take a moment to steal back the artifact," he explained.

"Cecilia," he turned to her expectantly which caught her off guard, "You said you were good at long range combat, do you think you could distract them while we move in?"

"Um, yeah, sure," she said with her heart already beating faster.

Nervousness was already setting into her stomach like a poisonous pill, flipping her insides and twisting them in knots. No, she needed to concentrate for the sake of this mission. She could do this, why else would Tsunade send her?

"Good," he said as he continued to explain the plan of action.

She told them that she brought a few poisons and drugs with her that she could use but of course these things were limited. They didn't seem to mind this and continued their plan with her as the distraction. All the plans would work given if she didn't screw up and when she expressed this concern Neji only said that he had thought of alternate plans in case of a few failures.

Hiding in the trees they waited for the first scout to go by. It felt like there was a lot of pressure on her to be a distraction. She had to be strong though. This was her chance to prove she could be useful. She just wanted to be useful at all costs.

The scout came into range. Looking around he wore a serious expression. A scar ran down his right cheek from his ear to his chin that slightly deformed his face. He couldn't have been much older than they were but his careful movements made him seem much older.

Her teammates hid with unmatched silence. Carefully, she readied the small ball she had made earlier and loaded it into the blowgun. This was a weapon she had made herself. Even the small black ball was homemade. Depending on what was written on it, it would have difference effects.

She shot it at a bush were the small ball produced a temporary rabbit that shoot out making enough noise to stop the scout and distract him from his normal scan. She then reloaded quickly, this time with a dart, then shot it at his neck. The needle whizzed past him silently but he had already noticed the movement. Darn it. She was still rusty not having practiced in a while, or maybe the tension was getting to her already.

Either way he had already noticed that something was up. Lee was the first one to rush out with extreme speed. The enemy resisted but he was no match for Lee's flawless fighting style. Cecilia was in awe but only for a moment because they had to move out again.

"We'll have to take out the other scout before we move in on the main group," Neji said as they moved quickly.

He located the other scout with his kekkei genkai as they hid once more. This time she wouldn't miss. She just wouldn't let it miss. Loading her tool with a needle again she aimed carefully from within the leaves. She could do this.

Taking a deep breath she steadied herself then blew.

The scout slapped his neck as if stung by a bug only to feel a needle. He pulled it out with a sour expression and angrily scanned his surroundings. It took only seconds for his eyelids to become heavy as he toppled to the ground. The powerful sleeping drug she lined the needles with was perfect.

But there was no time to marvel at her work before they moved on to the main group. Having Neji able to see where the enemies were was helpful considering they could know exactly where to be and where everyone else was.

The main group's formation was pretty tight and they seemed to be on guard considering they were no longer moving.

Lee was the first to voice his observation, "They stopped moving. Do you think they noticed us?"

"No," Neji answered scanning things they couldn't see, "The scouts must have reported to them at regular intervals and because they missed their timed report the main group knew something was wrong."

"What should we do?" Tenten questioned seriously.

"We'll have to take them out before they see us," Neji stated.

"Cecilia," he said looking over in her direction as she perked up at the mention of her name, "Take out as many of them as you can from a distance but do not engage anyone, understood?"

Like she would think of it. If anyone got close to her she'd surely be dead.

She nodded in agreement.

"We'll move in after the first long range attacks," he said to the rest of his group.

And like that, the plan was set as they moved in closer to the group. She prepared her needles and calmed herself. She just needed to concentrate only on aiming for now, just aiming. This time she made sure to shoot as many needles as possible. Only one needle hit. By this time the enemy ninja had prepared for battle but were ambushed by Neji, Tenten and Lee. They were perfectly synchronized with each other which made her feel even more like an outsider watching them. The main group went down quite easily.

She sighed knowing that everything went quite well. Feeling relaxed she put away her tool. Taking a step she was about to walk over to her teammates when a bird flew up from some bushes nearby causing her to stumble backward again. Maybe she wasn't so relaxed yet.

"It was just a bird," she said laughing at her own jumpiness.

"Don't be so sure," a voice mocked from behind her as a hand covered her mouth roughly.

She screamed as a reflex only for it to be muffled. This was really bad.

* * *

><p>Lee picked the black box out of the case and smiled brightly and stuck a thump up in approval, "Mission accomplished."<p>

"Great, now we can actually get back before dark," Tenten commented relieved.

"Wait," Neji said feeling uneasy.

It was just too easy. Something felt like it was missing.

"Where is Miss Cecilia?" Lee questioned.

That was it! Neji gasped in realization as he noticed she wasn't nearby. An instant sweep of his surroundings with his eyes told him exactly where she was.

As he took off his teammates followed knowing from his actions that something was wrong.

Neji stopped abruptly some distance away from her. The man with the scar from earlier had a kunai to her neck and a pleased look plastered on his face. Tenten and Lee stopped just behind their teammate as they figured out the situation.

She couldn't help but feel bad about her predicament. If only she was able to hit him with that needle earlier she wouldn't have a sharp object threatening her life. This is the kind of pay back she got for incompetence.

"This should be obvious," the ninja shouted over at them, "give me the artifact and you can have your friend back."

Neji seemed to think for a moment before answering, most likely looking for an opportunity to turn the situation in their favor but found none, "Then we'll make the exchange together."

"On three," the man said, "One, two . . ."

"Three," the man said as Lee tossed over the black box and the man released his grip on Cecilia to catch the object.

It only took a moment for Neji and his teammates to move in closer but the man was fast as well and completed a sequence of seals for a clone and she was back in the same situation. This time with a short sword to her back.

Neji gritted his teeth. Who was this man?

"Thought I almost lost her," the man grinned while walking over to her.

"Back up," he ordered.

Neji reluctantly backed up with Lee and Tenten. This was bad. How could he let the enemy control the situation?

He held the box up in front of Cecilia, "Open it."

"What? I don't even know what you're talking about," she protested but he was not amused.

"Don't act dumb! I know you can open this Saitou," he shouted at her.

Her eyes widened in realization. How did he know who she was? It didn't matter at this point, he would ask no matter what.

"I won't," she growled at him, "I won't open it."

"I have a feeling you will," he smiled.

In a moment she could hardly comprehend, he stabbed her in the shoulder with a kunai.

She screamed and bit her lip making it bleed. The metallic taste blotted her senses. Her teammates flinched but could do nothing with the threat in front of them. The red from her wound instantly started soaking her clothes. Huffing she tried not to concentrate on the pain though it was hard not to.

Looking up she saw Neji with a fire in his eyes. Come to think of it, this was one of the first times she really looked at him all day. Was she a burden? He must have really hated her now getting caught in this mess. She had to find a way out.

"Open it," the man ordered again.

She didn't want to do this but it looked like the only option.

"Fine," she said as he handed the box to her carefully.

"No funny business," he warned as the sword pressed harder against her back.

She turned the box over in her hands and then found the spot she needed. Holding the box in one hand she made many gestures to release the seals. When it was all done the box dissolved leaving behind a small collapsible lute.

"Finally," the man said taking the object quickly.

He held it up, eyes gleaming, "I had waited for this moment."

He laughed expanding the lute then putting it to his lips he played a few notes.

The music drifted in an echo among the trees. Then the silence. Everyone waited expectantly until the sound of a falcon drifted down from above and landed on his arm. The bird's talons scratched at the armor on his forearm as it looked at the man in a strangely attentive manner.

"Perfect," he smiled menacingly with the falcon waiting patiently.

"With this I could-," he began but coughed and choked on something.

The bird became upset and flew off once again into the sky leaving him confused and sick. Coughing, he looked at the lute and then to Cecilia and a moment of realization washed over him.

"Poison . . . you . . ." he gasped out with an angry expression.

Yes, she had slipped the poison in from her sleeve before he had taken it. Her teammates took advantage of this moment of weakness. Tenten got rid of the clone who disappeared in a poof. Neji appear in front of her in a protective manner as did Lee.

The dying man slowly sunk to the ground glaring at her with a vengeance until he finally passed on foaming at the mouth.

Disturbed by the scene in front of her she adverted her eyes. It was hard to watch someone die and even more so when she was the cause. Neji then turned around suddenly grabbing her shoulders and looking her up and down making an assessment of her condition. She tensed from the pain considering he had just grabbed her newly injured shoulder. Realizing what he had just done he repelled from her like a magnets of the same polarity.

"We have to get you back to get treated," he said calmly but almost too quickly for his normal tone. If Cecilia didn't know any better she would say that it almost sounded frantic.

"Put this on the wound and apply pressure," he said handing her a cloth from his pack.

She took it and did so with more pain than she expected. It probably shouldn't have hurt as much as it did but she guessed that the earlier fall didn't help much.

"Gather the lute, we're going back to the village at once," Neji ordered his teammates.

"Right," Lee said but as he was about to pick up the lute but Cecilia screamed before she could even think to say anything.

Lee stopped at the sudden noise that startled everyone else at once.

"Don't pick it up with your hands. It's still poisoned so it would be best not to touch it directly," she warned.

It would have been a disaster if she had poisoned any of them.

Gaining another cloth from Tenten, Lee then picked up the lute safely.

"Let's move out," Neji said only a moment before picking Cecilia up and taking off in the direction of the village.

At first she was so stunned by being picked up she didn't even make a sound but then felt strangely uncomfortable being carried. She blushed at that fact that he was holding her. This is the first time she had been so close to anyone besides her family.

"Um, you don't need to carry me, I'm sure I can make it back on my own," she protested his actions.

"It will be faster if I carry you plus it wouldn't be wise to overexert yourself when injured," Neji said only concentrating on his path back.

This only made her feel worse. Maybe she was really useless.

Though Tenten was trying to figure out what was going on between Neji and Cecilia she was too distracted by Lee. Apparently Lee saw carrying someone as a good training opportunity and wanted to carry Tenten as well. She of course refused a little annoyed that she wasn't able to put all her attention toward figuring what was odd about Neji.

By the time they made it to the village again Cecilia felt tired even though she hadn't done any physical activity for a while. It probably was her wound making her feel this way.

"Head back to the Hokage's office without me. I will be there for the report as soon as bring her to the hospital," he stated as they took off in another direction than them.

She felt silly being the only one that got out of the mission all messed up but at least it was a success. Although, she wondered how they had come to possess that lute. She thought for sure it had disappeared with her father a few months ago. The Hokage, Tsunade knew that they had it so that's why she sent her on the mission. Still, why would she send her at all? Wouldn't it have been better to obtain it without her knowledge? Certainly Neji's team could have done it without her. There were so many questions she needed to ask her.

* * *

><p>After Cecilia was admitted Neji reluctantly left to fill in on the report. When arriving at Tsunade's office Lee and Tenten had already finished giving their report.<p>

"Is everything alright?" Tenten asked as Neji passed her on her way back from the Hokage's office.

"I believe she will be alright now," Neji said rubbing his head as if he had a headache.

"That's good but I'm also asking about you," she sounded serious.

"I'm fine," he stated firmly then continued down the hallway.

Tenten was somewhat satisfied that his answer at least seemed normal, but she would have to watch him from now on. Maybe she was just imagining his strange behavior. Walking down the hall again she decided that she probably shouldn't pry too much when it came to Neji.

Entering the office Neji formally greeted Tsunade before going over the events of the mission.

"Thank you," Tsunade said going through her papers, "I'm glad nothing too serious had happened and that the artifact is back where it should be."

At this point it seemed like things were wrapping up and he was going to be dismissed but his thoughts wouldn't stop bothering him.

"Lady Tsunade, if you knew Cecilia had a connection to the artifact, why did you send her on the mission?" Neji questioned knowing he was a bit out of line.

Tsunade stared at him seriously, carefully weighing her words, "I had no idea they would actually recognize who she was but I felt she had the right to be a part of the mission that retrieved an object that meant more to her than anyone else in this village."

She sighed looking a little exhausted, "I know you had requested Cecilia's file the other day and that you know about her family's connection to kekkei genkai research but I can assure you that this artifact has nothing to do with that."

"And this experiment, does it have something to do with that research?" Neji said with venom in his voice.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that," she stated flatly before moving some things around, "You're dismissed."

Neji politely bowed before taking his leave though he felt troubled. Why couldn't he get a straight answer from her? There was something going on and Cecilia was at the center of it. Cecilia, he wondered if she was really okay. She dropped out of school so she shouldn't have been there in the first place and then she wouldn't have gotten hurt. No, as the team leader he was responsible for making sure the mission went well.

Sighing to himself he rationalized that he should go visit her later to apologize and check on her condition. His head was starting to feel fuzzy again.

* * *

><p>Cecilia's condition wasn't as bad as they thought, once all was said and done she got a bandage and advise not to move around too much though they were keeping her in the hospital just to make sure. Lying in bed she felt restless. She couldn't believe they had gotten the lute back. It was a piece of her father she thought she would never see again. Somehow it felt peaceful to know that the lute was safe.<p>

"Looks like you had a rough day," Yoko said nonchalantly crouching on the windowsill next to her bed.

"What are you doing in the window?" Cecilia asked surprised.

Yoko only tilted her head innocently and smiled, "Well I was just passing by and saw you were back."

She just sighed, "Leave it to you to just pass by a fourth floor window."

Her friend giggled and jumped off the sill and into the room, "So, did the mission at least go well?"

Cecilia smiled contently and sighed once more, "Yes."

"That's great!" Yoko exclaimed plopping down on the end of her bed.

"So how's the experiment going by the way?" Yoko asked slyly.

Cecilia's whole face dropped, "I don't know. I'm not sure if Neji will be continuing the drug trial."

"Why? You didn't tell him what it was about, did you?" her friend asked concerned.

"No, but he did find out about my family so he thinks it's something else," she said rubbing her injured shoulder.

"Wow, he's a little more resourceful than I thought," Yoko marveled.

"I just don't know what to do. I feel like I'm just causing more trouble for everyone," she looked away from her friend not wanting to face anyone right now only to catch sight of someone in the doorway and immediately froze.

Yoko jumped up from the bed and greeted the guest, "Hello, Yuki. Did you come to see Cecilia too?"

Yuki seemed a little out of place shifting the flower he brought in his hands, "Yeah, I heard she was here and wanted to see if she was alright."

This is the first time Cecilia saw Yuki nervous and the closer he came to her bed the more nervous she became as well.

"Oh, you cut your hair," he stated surprised, "and you're wearing contacts?"

"Yeah," she answered bashfully, "I felt like a change lately."

"It looks nice. Oh and I brought you this," he held out a tiger lily and smiled, "I'm not really good with flowers so I don't know if it's appropriate but I thought you might like it."

"T-t-thank you," she stutter out taking the flower from him and feeling her ears become a little warm, "H-how did you know I was here?"

"Well," he rubbed the back of his head thoughtfully, "I saw some guy carrying you earlier and it looked like you were hurt. I went by your house but when you weren't there I came here. I just wanted to know if you were alright."

She really felt overwhelmed and the world seemed to revolve around her for the moment. Yuki was concerned about her and went to her house. He even brought her a flower. It was just too good to be true.

"So what happened?" he asked concerned.

"Well I-," she started, trying to regain her thoughts, "I had went on a mission today, but it didn't go as well as planned."

"A mission?" he repeated surprised, "But I thought you couldn't go on missions."

Cecilia just smiled nervously, "Well, it's a long story."

Just then Yoko clapped her hands making a loud sound that made both of them jump and turn their attention toward her.

"Hey, if Cecilia is up for it, why don't we all go out tomorrow," she suggested with a big grin painted across her face.

Stunned at the sudden suggestion Cecilia only said the first response that came to mind, "I don't know, I mean, I guess I should be out of here by tomorrow but-"

Although before she could oppose Yoko took the moment to make plans, "Good, and you'll be there too right Yuki? I'm sure taking her out for a little fresh air and fun will help her recover."

"I uh," Yuki said caught off guard, "sure."

This time she knew she was blushing. He said he would go out with her tomorrow. Words she never thought she would hear.

"Awesome," Yoko giggled happily, "We'll all meet at Cecilia's house tomorrow afternoon."

She then grabbed Yuki and started to pull him out of the room against his will, "Alright, well we better let her rest for now, see you tomorrow Cecilia."

Yuki only let out a small, "Bye," before he was practically dragged out of the room.

Cecilia couldn't believe what her friend did but in a way she was glad. She'd be going out with Yuki for the first time tomorrow. She couldn't help smiling to herself and suddenly the events of that day didn't seem so bad because if she didn't get hurt on the mission then she wouldn't be spending time with her crush tomorrow.

Her stomach bubbled with excitement and anticipation but she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy too. Knowing her friend, she had to be up to something. Trying to think of what it was she was at a loss. Well, no matter what, at least Yuki would be there. She sat there smiling to herself, forgetting her shoulder was even in any pain.

* * *

><p>The sound of metal hitting wood disturbed the silence of the forest. Neji had been training until the final lights of dusk but showed no signs of stopping. Sweat was dripping off him but he didn't dare stop for a moment. He just couldn't understand why he had let the enemy get the upper hand on the mission. Cecilia wouldn't have gotten hurt if he had been more focused.<p>

He continued to go through routines of throwing kunai and gentle fist fighting while thinking of a way to clear his head. He would have to go apologized to Cecilia tomorrow and her family as well. Did she hate him for failing her? It was his job to protect her and his team after all.

A few kunai he threw missed and he stopped, feeling warm again. His heart had started beating fast at the thought of her hating him. Wait, why was he so concerned? Another headache crept up on him and he held his head wondering what was wrong with him lately. What was the drug doing to him? Was it meant to make him unfocused?

Just then he noticed a presence in the trees nearby.

"I know your hiding over there!" he shouted, knowing that they weren't a threat.

A girl jumped down from the trees and walked over to greet him, "You definitely are very perceptive."

"Who are you?" he asked getting to the point.

"Oh sorry, I didn't introduce myself," she chirped, "I'm Cecilia's friend Yoko."

"Really?" he was a little suspicious, "So why were you hiding just now?"

"I didn't want to disturb you," she explained twisting a piece of her strawberry blonde hair between her fingers, "you looked like you were in deep concentration."

Neji crossed his arms trying to figure her out, "So what did you come here for?"

"I'm glad you asked," Yoko perked up and pulled a vial of a light blue liquid from her pouch, "Cecilia told me to bring this to you. She always keeps a few extra samples of her concoctions at home so she had me pick it up for her since she obviously can't at the moment, being in the hospital and all. I believe you have to take it once a day right?"

She handed him the vial and he took it carefully, calculating her moves.

As she was about to leave he spoke up, "I never told her I was going to continue the experiment."

Yoko halted and spun around with a pleasant smile, "Oh well, I suppose you don't have to take it then do you? Either way I'll leave it up to you."

She giggled then took off into the trees.

He didn't know if he could trust her. Turning the vial over in his hands it looked like the same liquid he had taken before. Was that girl really Cecilia's friend? It definitely was strange of her to know about the experiment. Then again, the people who would know are him, his uncle, the Hokage, and Cecilia, but would she have told anyone else? It just reminded him that he knew too little about her.

His mind wondered when thinking of Cecilia. If this was from her did it mean she wasn't mad at him or did she just want to continue her experiment?

Opening the container he let he liquid just barely touch his tongue before cringing and thinking that it was definitely the same bitter flavor as the other drug she gave him. So if she really did give him this, maybe she did want to see him again. That's it, tomorrow afternoon he would go and apologize. He then put the vial to his lips and drank only to immediately grimace at the taste. He definitely had to remember to ask her if she could make it into a pill next time.

* * *

><p>The next morning Cecilia was skipping about with birds in her soul and feathers in her feet. Today Yuki was going to go on a date with her. Although her leg had been hurting slightly from yesterday as well as her shoulder she really didn't care about it at this point. Trying to make sure everything was perfect she put on makeup carefully in the mirror, messing up her eyeliner a few times. Makeup wasn't something she wore that often but this was definitely a special occasion and she wanted to look her best.<p>

Her hair had a nasty habit of feathering strangely outward so she straightened it at bit and tied it together loosely near the bottom so they rested on her shoulders in two small pigtails. She stared at the mirror unsatisfied thinking that maybe it looked a little too much like Tsudane's hair. Well at least her hair was shorter than the Hokage's and brown instead of blond. For a last touch she put the small pin her mother gave her on the end of one pigtail for good luck.

No matter how much she fussed, she never felt ready. Maybe she was over thinking things a little bit.

Just then there was a knock on the front door and her heart fluttered. She raced downstairs yelling, "I'll get it! I'll get it!"

She flew passed her mom who was on her way to see who it was as well.

"You shouldn't be running in your condition," Mrs. Saitou scolded with concern.

Cecilia stopped just before the door to compose herself before opening it casually.

"You're early I didn't- Neji?" she had started off cheerful but was stunned to see Neji instead of Yuki or her friend "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to come by and apologize for yesterday," he said looking a little out of place.

"Apologize for what?" she asked even move perplexed.

"For not being able to-" but Neji was cut off by Cecilia's mother walking up to the doorway.

"Who is it?" she asked but when she caught sight of him her expression turned just as surprised as her daughter's, "Oh, a Hyuga. What brings you to our home?"

Mrs. Saitou smiled warmly but couldn't hide the fidgeting of her fingers as if she was nervous about something.

"I would like to apologize to both of you," he said firmly, "I failed as a leader to keep my teammates safe and would like to make amends if possible."

He bowed out of respect which caught Mrs. Saitou off guard until she put the pieces together in her mind, "You're the one that led the mission with my daughter yesterday."

"Yes," he responded unmoving.

This time she smiled for real, "As long as you promise to take care of my daughter from now on I will forgive you."

"Mom!" Cecilia exclaimed horrified.

It sounded like she was giving her away or something.

"Well whenever you are together of course," she corrected to make it not sound as serious.

Although, Neji didn't seem to notice the difference firmly stated, "I promise."

Cecilia stood there wide eyed as to what exactly just happened but her mother seemed pleased and invited Neji inside.

"I,m sorry but I can't stay," Neji readily declined the offer, "I have some training to do today."

"Oh come on, you can put that off for today can't you?" Yoko who always appears out of nowhere snuck her arm around Neji making him flinch.

"Training is a part of a healthy regimen," he stated while carefully removing her hand from him.

"Oh come on, didn't you do enough training yesterday?" Yoko teased smirking like she had a dirty secret.

Neji was speechless remembering that she had seen him train the night before.

"Am I late?" came a voice from behind Neji and Yoko who turned around to see Yuki had finally made it with a lost expression.

"No, right on time," Yoko chimed going over and dragging him to the door.

"Oh this must be Yuki," Mrs. Saitou said before greeting the new guest.

"Nice to meet you," Yuki smiled politely, "I hope you don't mind us taking your daughter out. I can assure you Yoko and I will take care of her."

"Of course, please have fun," she giggled a little at his polite gesture.

"Alright, let's go!" Yoko exclaimed grabbing Neji and doing what she does best which is to drag people into uncomfortable situations.

"Hey Cecilia aren't you coming?" Yuki asked as she stood dumbfounded by the events that took place on her doorstep.

"I, uh," she looked for a voice when coming back to terms with reality, "yeah."

She waved bye to her mom and quickened her step to catch up with the others but still couldn't believe what was happening. She was finally with Yuki . . . going out . . . on a date! Well, maybe it wasn't exactly a date but it was still the first time she was spending her day with him and he even agreed to come. Actually, Yoko pushed him into it much like what she was doing with Neji at the moment.

She looked over at Yoko who was escorting a slightly irritated Neji. Why had she decided to take Neji along anyway? Maybe so it wouldn't feel awkward to have three people? Why was she even questioning it anyway, Yoko was Yoko, she always did what she wanted.

"So how's your shoulder?" Yuki asked trying to stir up conversation.

"It's fine," she smiled at him putting a hand to her bandaged joint.

She had been too distracted lately to even think about it, plus they did give her pain medication as well.

"Did you finish your project?" he asked taking Cecilia off guard.

"What? W-what do you mean?" she stammered out quickly.

What did he mean? Did he know about the experiment?

"Didn't you say you were working on a project with Neji?" he asked tilting his head slightly in confusion.

"Oh, um well, not yet," she smiled to cover up how nervous she was.

That really felt too close for comfort.

"So what do you two think about going out for lunch? I saw this new restaurant that looks cute," Yoko asked looking back at her and Yuki with a big smile.

"I don't mind," Yuki answered.

"Yeah, sounds good to me," Cecilia chimed feeling her stomach twist.

She definitely was hungry. This morning she was too excited to eat much at all.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed still clinging to an irritated Neji as if he would escape as soon as she let go.

She led them through a few twists and turns until they made it to a small corner of town Cecilia had never been to before. Although, Cecilia didn't get out much so there were a lot of places she didn't know about.

Walking in, they sat down with Cecilia and Yuki on one side then Yoko and Neji on the other. Sitting like this it really felt like some kind of double date making Cecilia blush a little.

"We haven't done this in a while. Last time we didn't even get to eat," Yoko winked happily to her friend.

"Y-yeah," Cecilia responded feeling awkward.

The last time they had gone out together was when Neji's tea was spiked. This only made her want to hide ruining her enthusiasm from before. She couldn't believe she really thought of using the drug on Yuki. What was she thinking back then?

With Cecilia in her thoughts and Neji trying not to be in there, Yoko did all the talking and Yuki ended up being the only other person to respond. This left Cecilia to wonder if Neji was feeling as off as she was about the whole thing. Even when they had ordered, Yoko had made orders for the whole table.

"To Cecilia's first successful mission!" Yoko exclaimed holding her glass up as a cue for everyone to do the same.

"It was really nothing. I didn't do much," Cecilia shrunk herself in embarrassment.

Remembering the mission made her feel even more uneasy.

"Nonsense," Yoko waved her comment away, "She did well, didn't she Neji?"

She nudged him a little as he glanced from her to Cecilia's uncertain expression, gauging his response, "Yes."

Somehow this made Cecilia feel better, even if he was just saying that to be nice.

They toasted when a blast of wind hurled threw the restaurant from an open window making glasses clatter and wood creak. Cecilia's hair blew in front of her face as the wind traveled a from behind her and across the table. Neji gasped and shot up out of his seat. A waiter went over and closed the window making a sudden stillness in the room. Neji was still standing looking straight at Cecilia with bewildered eyes.

"Is something wrong?" Yoko asked looking from her friend to the boy standing next to her.

Cecilia looked away covering her face from his gaze wondering what just happened. Neji then seemed to snap out of his trance, realizing her was standing then sat down. He wondered what just happened. Suddenly he had smelled something sweet and the next moment he was standing. He sneezed into his sleeve feeling that strange, warm, fuzzy feeling in his head he had been having lately.

A strange silence had come over that table but Yoko wouldn't take the silence for long.

She clapped her hands together and decided the next plan of action, "Let's go for a walk."

"But we didn't-" Cecilia started to say they didn't finish their food but Yoko simply scooted them out of the booth.

"Time for a walk," she suggested or rather ordered, leaving money at the table and ushering everyone out of the building.

When outside Yoko herded the group down the street and into a nearby park.

"This is what we all need, some fresh air and leisure time," She smiled inhaling deeply, reassuring everyone that things were alright.

Even though there was a change of scenery the tension still remained.

She then grabbed Yuki by the arm and led him away down a path, "Come on Yuki I've got a cool place to show you."

Cecilia was about to follow but Yoko shouted back at them, "You guys stay there! We'll be right back!"

As her friend and crush disappeared she was left in another silence with Neji who still looked a little warm. She stood there the only way she could; awkwardly and uncomfortably. Glancing over at him she notice he wasn't even looking in her direction, in fact, he looked a little distracted.

"Are you alright Neji?" she asked concerned.

"I'm fine," he answered quickly without changed his position.

Yet another moment of silence.

"I'm sorry by the way, for yesterday," she apologized softly, "I should have been more careful on the mission. I hope I wasn't too much of a burden."

"No, it was my responsibility as the leader of the mission. I'm the one that should have been more careful," he apologized.

This is why he felt the need to train recently. Even though the mission was a success it still felt like a failure.

"Even so," she continued becoming surer of her words, "I'm sorry for everything, for the mission and for forcing you into testing my drug. I'm just going to call the whole thing off so you don't have to be involved with me anymore."

This had really caught his attention and shot it straight at her. Did that mean he wouldn't see her again? There were still so many things he didn't know about her.

Cecilia sighed staring at the ground and rubbing her injured arm, "I'm going to find Yoko."

She was about to make her way down the path when Neji caught her good wrist. She looked back perplexed by his sudden act.

"If it's alright with you I'd like to continue the experiment. There are also still a lot of questions I'd like you to answer," he said staring at her intensely.

She didn't know how to respond but looked down at his hand holding onto her's. He followed her gaze and when he saw what he was doing he immediately let go.

"Or at the very least you could consult me before ending our agreement. I did sign an agreement after all and I don't go back on my word," he added regaining his composure.

"Well, even if you want to continue you're kind of behind on your doses. I don't think I've given you anything for days," she said, making her side to the argument, "I would probably need to start over anyway."

"Didn't you send your friend to give me a dose last night?" he asked wondering if she had forgotten.

"What? What do you mean? I didn't send-" she began but Yoko and Yuki arrived just in time to cut her off.

"We're back!" she sang holding a small bouquet and giving it to her friend, "Bet you forgot about the patch of flowers we planted back when we kids."

She was right, "Wow, I didn't know we had planted them around here."

"Pleasant surprise huh?" she grinned widely, proud of herself.

"You two have really been friends for a long time," Yuki commented with his dazzling smile.

Cecilia had almost forgotten how much she melts when he smiles.

"I should be going," Neji said finding it an opportune moment to leave.

"We should too," Yoko chimed as she gathered everyone to follow him.

She definitely wasn't going to give him a moment to leave.

As they followed, Yoko had took over Neji, talking to him about random parts of her day and Yuki was once again walking beside Cecilia.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Yuki almost whispered to Cecilia.

"Uh, sure," she answered her heat leaping at what it could be.

"Is your friend, you know, going out with anyone?" he asked eagerly.

"No, I don't think so," she answered but was unsure.

"Oh I see," he said with a slight smile.

"Why do you ask?" she questioned curiously with a deathly suspicion in mind.

He smiled warmly with a new excitement in his eyes, "Just wondering."

She didn't want to think of it. No he couldn't, could he? He wasn't interested in her relationship status because he liked her did he? These thoughts plagued her mind. No he was just making conversation. She was just reading into it too much. It was a strange day after all.

"Well it looks like I'm going in this direction," Yoko stated with her normal upbeat tone, "I believe your house is this way too right Yuki?"

"Yeah I'll walk with you," he said but before he joined her he turned to Cecilia to bid her farewell, "I had a great time. We should all go out again someday. Maybe when you're better?"

"Yeah," She smiled feeling the butterflies in her stomach respond.

"Why don't you walk Cecilia home, she doesn't have a great sense of direction," Yoko called to Neji before rounding a corner with Yuki.

Cecilia blushed and quickly corrected her friend's statement, "I'm fine she's just joking."

"Have a good night Neji," She said still fuming from Yoko's comment.

Neji only noticed she was indeed going in the wrong direction. He sighed thinking that another few minutes out of his schedule wouldn't hurt.

"I'll walk you home, it's not a big deal although if you don't mind we could walk in this direction? I believe we will arrive at your house faster this way," he said trying to help her save face for her mistake.

"S-sure alright," she agreed realizing she was coincidentally going in the wrong direction.

The walk back to her house was quiet but it gave her time to compile her thoughts from the day. She had finally spend some time with Yuki but her joy of the event was overshadowed by another event. Why did her friend give Neji the drug? Where did she even get it? Or did she even give him the right one? Was it something else? She would have to check her stores when she got home.

Speaking of her drug, "I almost forgot," she said taking out a vial of light blue liquid.

"If you're going to continue the experiment you'll have to take this tonight," she held it out to him.

He reluctantly took the glass tube and made a sour expression, "Before I continue this experiment can you answer one question for me?"

"I will do my best," she said curious. Neji had never asked her for anything before.

He stared at her seriously for a moment before asking, "Does this experiment have anything to do with kekkei genkai?"

She took a moment to think, wondering if it was alright to tell him but she at least owed him this much, "No, it has nothing to do with that."

Relieved he went on to his next question, "May I also make one more request?"

"Sure," she answered guessing what else he would want to know.

"Is there any form I can take this in without . . . tasting it?" he asked carefully choosing his words.

"Oh, it's that bad huh?" she rubbed the back of her head feeling sheepish. She had never actually considered the taste of the drug.

"No worries, I'll make it a pill if that's alright?" she suggested.

"That's fine," he answered quickly feeling more relieved.

They had arrived at her house only to find it hard to part. Neji had never felt it awkward or hard to part with anyone before but this time he found it a little strange. It's like he forgot how to say goodbye.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you tomorrow to run some tests," she said feeling the tension in their parting.

"Yes, I'll look forward to your visit," Neji answered wondering why he had even said it. Everything he could think of saying sounded stupid in his mind.

"Goodnight," she said before entering her home.

"Goodnight," he responded as she closed the door, leaving him alone for the first time in a while that day.

As he walked home he couldn't get over the strange sunken feeling he had after parting with her and all he could think of is her visit tomorrow. Suddenly he couldn't wait for tomorrow to come, it consumed his whole mind. How could he make time move faster? His head only felt like it was buzzing. Maybe tomorrow he could get more answers. Maybe then he could find out more about her.

The shadow of a headache was creeping up on him making him feel dizzy. Taking out the vial he stared at it thoughtfully with a moment of clarity between the haziness in his thoughts. He needed to figure out the purpose of the experiment.

* * *

><p>Cecilia sighed plopping down on her bed after a long day. Neji was right, a vial of her drug was missing from her case so Yoko must have given it to him the night before. She wouldn't put it past her anyway. It just bother her though. What was Yoko planning? She not only gave him the drug without her knowing but she had invited Neji out this afternoon. What was she gaining from her experiment? The reasons almost seemed endless.<p>

At least she had gotten more time with Yuki recently. She would have never thought she could show her face to him again and here she was, going on dates with him. She blushed just thinking of his smile and turned over in her bed shamelessly smiling to herself. She planned her activities for the next day to calm herself down. Tomorrow she would visit Neji then run some tests and maybe . . . maybe she could visit her dad as well. Her smile faded at the thought of her father. She stared at the hair pin her mother gave her on the bedside table thinking of her family. Maybe it was time to see him again. It had been almost three months after all. He would probably want to know his lute was back. Her eyes began to water but she dug her face in her pillow to stifle the tears. Tomorrow, tomorrow she would visit him.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes:<strong> So I haven't been able to publish a chapter in a long time. It's not that I don't write but more that I don't write a lot at a time. It's hard to actually find the time to write these days because normal life just gets in the way. I also feel bad that this chapter is SO LONG. I know some people might like a long chapter but in all honesty I could have made the last part of this chapter part of the next one, but in the end I felt like it was better just to add it on here. I don't know, sometimes I just don't want to make a long chapter because it takes longer to read so people need a longer period of time to sit down and read through it. I know I hate when I had to stop in the middle of a chapter and come back to it. Although, then there are chapters that are too short and they don't get anywhere in the time it takes to read them and seem more like snippets of thought instead of a progressive plot. It's hard to find a good medium.

Anyway, thank you all who read, review, favorite or follow the story. It really means a lot to me when I see that at least people found it worth their time to read. Even if you didn't like it, thanks for making it this far and giving it a shot. Have a great day, great weekend, great year or great whatever. See you in the next chapter!

**_P.S._  
>1. <strong>A recent review reminded me that I know there are parts of this story people don't like. I know Cecilia sounds like it's a random name but it's not. I suppose if she were to have an equivalent Japanese name it might be Kurami but honestly I found Cecilia a more fitting name and I don't know if people in Japan would actually name their child Kurami. I mean, that name seems nice but . . . well I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't realized it yet. But if you really want her to have a Japanese name please just PM me or review telling me what you think.  
><strong>2.<strong> Also, I'm so glad someone pointed out my bad grammar, yes I am aware that my grammar isn't the best and I work on that a little at a time. Bad grammar is a hard habit to break.  
><strong>3.<strong> The last thing is, if you hate Yoko, I understand. I never liked her character to begin with but hey, hating someone together can be just as fun as liking someone together.


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